Ten minutes ago.
In the Seventh District, near the student dormitories, on a shopping street.
The street was unusually quiet at night, but the empty crossroad, several dozen ters wide, seed strange.
In this unusual scene, a spiky-haired boy walks down the street. He was of average height, wearing a white shirt and black pants, looking slightly tired.
"Sigh~ I've been encountering so many strange things lately; it's unlucky."
Unluckiness seed to be a daily occurrence for this boy. His misfortunes couldn't be explained scientifically. A single outing could result in stepping in dog poop three tis, getting mugged once, experiencing a car accident once, narrowly avoiding being hit by falling flower pots twice, and losing money four tis while shopping.
Events that most people rarely encountered were daily occurrences for this boy. Because of this, he developed an extraordinary sense of crisis. For example, he avoided walking near tall buildings, didn't go into deserted alleys, always watched his step, and never jaywalked—if he did, the car accident rate would be over 98%.
The boy's na was Touma Kamijou, a boy with extrely bad luck but overflowing with romantic entanglents.
From a young age, 138 hospitalizations taught Touma that the world was dangerous, at least for him. However, he still loved life and enjoyed helping others, often calling himself a "hypocrite," but he was a passionate and kind-hearted boy.
The street's silence caught Touma's attention. It was too unusual. His first thought was that a major natural disaster was imminent and that he had sohow missed the warning. This wasn't ridiculous for Touma; it was a normal part of his "peaceful" life.
"Absolutely... no one around?"
Touma started to panic. The street was empty, and even the shops and malls at the crossroads were silent. More concerning was the lights in a nearby mall were still on, indicating that people had been there recently but had suddenly evacuated.
"This is bad."
Touma's body tensed, his face turning pale.
Tap, tap, tap...
In the silent street, the sudden sound of footsteps was especially clear.
"It's just a rune to keep bystanders away."
A female voice ca from behind. Touma instinctively turned and saw a tall woman with a single braid holding a long-sheathed sword. The sword was at least 1.5 ters long, and the woman's attire was even more peculiar.
She wore jeans and a white T-shirt, a simple outfit, but on her, it appeared unique. The left pant leg of her jeans was almost completely torn off, revealing her long, pale leg, with just enough fabric left nearly to expose her underwear. The white T-shirt was tied up, exposing her abdon and lower back.
From her outfit, figure, and physique, she looked like a voluptuous woman over 20 years old. In reality, she was only 18, nad Kanzaki Kaori, a key player on the magic side known as a "Saint." A "Saint" could use so of the powers of the Son of God.
Most "Saints" were physically strong mages, using magic as support and physical strength as their main combat thod.
Kanzaki Kaori fought with swordsmanship, using her long sword, "Seven Heavens and Seven Earths," as her main weapon.
"You are..."
Touma sensed danger, especially after hearing the word "rune." He recalled the magician he fought last night and guessed that this woman might be an ally of that magician.
Indeed, living in constant peril had heightened Touma's sense of danger.
"My na is Kanzaki Kaori. I don't want to reveal my other na unless necessary."
Hearing the warning in her words, Touma tensed, ready for combat. Defeating a magician yesterday made him a bit overconfident.
"To be direct, I hope to protect that child before revealing my magical na. You should know who I an."
"What if I refuse?"
"Sorry."
With that, Kanzaki made a motion to draw her sword.
Shing! A sharp light flashed, and Touma saw a nearby half-ter-thick iron pillar cut in half.
Seeing this, Touma felt a chill but still charged forward. His only combat ability was "Imagine Breaker." Despite his opponent's strength, he wouldn't give up the girl, Index, believing these people had malicious intent.
A few minutes later, Touma, who was full of fighting spirit, lay on the ground with over a dozen shallow cuts on his right arm. Kanzaki Kaori stood over him, pressing one foot on his chest, her face cold, showcasing their overwhelming power difference.
"Why don't you kill ? If you wanted to, I would have died many tis already. If you hesitate to kill, it ans you have a conscience. So, you should understand that chasing and attacking a girl with a sword is unforgivable. I won't hand her over."
Unable to fight, Touma resorted to talking.
Touma misunderstood; Kanzaki wasn't trying to kill Index but to "protect" her, tied to a crude lie and Index's identity.
Index: A nun of the Anglican Church, raised in the St. George Cathedral in England, now 14 years old. She possessed perfect mory, tasked with morizing 103,000 magical grimoires.
Such an important person was tightly controlled by the Anglican Church, which fabricated a lie: Index's brain had limited capacity and could only store one year's worth of mories after morizing the grimoires, requiring annual mory wipes to prevent death from mory overload. This kept Index's mories at the point she morized the grimoires, making control easier.
This lie could fool the naive, and surprisingly, so believed it deeply, enduring the pain of Index forgetting them every year to "protect" her. Kanzaki Kaori was one of them.
Index had escaped, and Kanzaki Kaori and Stiyl Magnus were pursuing her. Stiyl was the magician Touma had defeated.
With the mory wipe deadline approaching, they needed to find and save Index quickly by erasing her past year's mories.
Index's injuries were Touma's fault. His right hand's power damaged her protective clothing, "Walking Church," making Kanzaki think she couldn't hurt Index and leading to the accidental injury.
Thus, Kanzaki Kaori, trying to protect Index, ended up fighting Touma, who also wanted to protect her.
"You think I want to do this? What do you know? How much do you know about Index?"
Kanzaki, previously cold, suddenly lost her composure, guilt from hurting Index, and the imminent mory wipe deadline, making her unable to stay calm.
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